Nanowrimo: National Novel Writing Month

I’ve sat here for the past hour contemplating what I’m going to post. I did a little bit of school work, I talked to some people on MSN. I procrastinated, you could say.

And then it finally occurred to me that I’m way behind on my National Novel Writing Month word count. When I thought of that, I thought: there’s still people in the world that don’t know about National Novel Writing Month. Writers that would benefit from it’s amazing goal. So today, I’ll be telling you what National Novel Writing Month is.

What would you say if I told you thousands of people were writing fifty thousand word novels in one month? Insanity, I know. You may even think I’m lying. The goal of National Novel Writing Month, however, is to get real writers with real lives to actually pay attention to their creativity. Every year, at midnight on November first, about a million or so people break out the notebooks or load up Microsoft Word and begin a journey that seems impossible for many. You’d be surprised how many people actually cross the fifty thousand word mark by the end of the month.

It doesn’t matter what kind of novel you write. Your characters don’t have to be perfect, your plot doesn’t have to be flawless, and your writing style doesn’t have to match the writing style of a published author. The goal is to hit the word count. Some people don’t like the “quantity over quality” idea, but trust me; the ideas that come out of just writing until you can’t write a moment longer are amazing. Your characters will surprise you, your plots will spit deeper subplots at you, your writing style will evolve.

Even if you don’t think you’ll hit fifty thousand words in a month, it’s a great way to keep the creative juices flowing. A couple thousand words a day, and you’re suddenly a writer again.

National Novel Writing Month is well under way, but I do recommend those who haven’t heard of it to check it out. Chris Baty, the founder, and several well published authors send out pep talks through email once a week to keep everyone motivated. The website provides a word count bar, and a place to publish an excerpt of your story for extra fun.

This is year three for me, and I still won’t be hitting fifty thousand. But November has turned into one of the best months for me.

www.nanowrimo.org